Not Letting This One Go
by Fantasy Cat
Summary: Just a quickie post 1x11 "Bound". Because Peter never intended to say those words in his father's presence but he did, and now Walter knew what he had to do.


**Disclaimer: _Can't claim something this good._**

**_Walter, Peter, set the night after the events of "1x11 Bound"_**

"Peter?"

Peter's eyes slowly opened. To no surprise, Walter was inches away from him, nearly nose-to-nose.

"Walter?" he moaned, no longer caring for how close is father was to him as he had been struggling the entire night to sleep. "What in the world could possibly be so important that you need to come into my bed at 3 in the morning?"

His father gave Peter a smile, one of the most eerie smiles Peter would ever see in his lifetime.

"You can't sleep?"

"Well it's hard to when you're inhaling the scent of an old man who is lying dangerously close to me in bed," said Peter. "But other than that…yeah, whatever. I can't sleep."

"You're thinking about HER, aren't you?"

Peter was still half-asleep and confused. "Huh? Who?"

His father winked. "You know who."

"Whatever. Would you mind backing off a few inches?"

Peter was too tired to fight off his father from his bedside. So the best he could do was to at least push him to the far side of the bed. Walter willingly obeyed only because he was determined to continue the conversation.

"You really WERE worried about her, Peter."

Peter closed his eyes and mumbled something as he pretended to fall asleep…trying to drown out the words of his father.

Walter chuckled and he whispered in Peter's ear, "I'm more clever than you think. Don't think I will let you go from your little slip in the lab today that easily."

Peter heard his words loud and clear and he knew exactly what Walter meant when he said them. This brought him to the breaking point as he finally decided to end his false attempts to sleep.

"Augh…what slip?!"

"Oh son…you know what slip."

Walter continued to torment his son with his constant discreet riddles. It angered Peter that his own father would put his mind in a difficult position of both denial and admittance like this...especially at this hour.

"Just let me sleep, please! If you want to talk about this tomorrow…fine. But I don't think this is really necessary to discuss right now."

Peter dropped his head back against the pillow with his eyes towards the ceiling refusing to look at any possible facial response on Walter's face.

"You didn't mean for me to hear it," Walter began to whisper inaudibly to his son. "But I did, and I know why you would say such a thing..."

Peter was relieved that he couldn't hear Walter this time. He took advantage of the situation to turn his back away from Walter and make a new attempt to sleep.

Walter continued to speak to his son even if he couldn't hear it.

"I think I can help you, Peter…if you really want to move forward with this. What you said to her today is quite an impressive start. But don't worry, I will share with you my genius and expertise on the matter. I've been around that block a few times myself, you know."

Peter was now snoring, which surprised Walter. He had never known his son to snore so it was quite possible that he did hear his words and was merely ignoring him once again.

"But rest assured Peter…now that it is what I suspected, I'm afraid you can't be let off the hook."

His son continued to snore and Walter decided it was time to leave him to his sleep.

"Goodniiiiiiiiight…"

Walter retreated back to his place on the couch with a huge smile on his face. He was going to push Peter to pursue what he desired most, whether he liked it or not. Walter knew that Peter was a stubborn son. It would take a lot of pushing, a lot of torment, and a lot of torture for Peter to at least admit his true feelings.

He knew Peter would hate him every step of the way for doing so. But he knew the heavy bearing behind the words "I care about you", especially coming from a Bishop. Hearing those words stunned Walter and he knew that Peter realized what a mistake it was to have said them, even if the intended recipient did not know of their true meaning.

Walter had to do this…for his son, and maybe a little bit for her…

…and even some of it for himself because he had to face it. As much as Peter would probably kill him for it, Walter was going to find his quest to help his son in his greatest pursuit, the most fun and most amusement he ever had since his own youth.

* * *

**_Just for fun. Hope you enjoyed it!_**


End file.
